[Michael Gissing]

One of the most pleasing aspects of this is 60p making movement and motion within shots, like water and wind so fluid. However I started watching it in HD and the wind through the grasses was awful!

[Michael Gissing]

[Jeremy Garchow] “Survival is certainly encoded and theoretically, any ape (or male ape) can challenge any other male ape for control.

Humans often equate our behaviour with apes that we are not as closely related to. Bonobos are our closest DNA relatives and they do not live in an alpha male harem society at all. Their hierarchy is intensely social, matriarchal, poly sexual. The fact that we look for alpha male hierarchy in the mammal world is to justify our modern social construction so in that sense Harari is correct. We have invented social structures that have a basis in our DNA but have been mythologised and modified to justify.

I am merely pointing out that both the instincts that we warp and the brain that does it is a result of inherited DNA over which we overlay social mythos. As for human success, I am always quoting Stephen Jay Gould who, as a paleontologist, took the longer view of humans as a species when he declared that looking at millions of years of evolution, “Intelligence is always a backwater”.

[Michael Gissing]

[Jeremy Garchow] “There is no genetic code for equality, or freedom, or money, or class/caste. These are not elements of our biology.”

Not really correct. We do have behavioral genetically inherited traits for reciprocity which is based on recognising others of our species as having a shared sense of equality. Reciprocity behaviour is at the heart of social primates. As we share an extremely high proportion of that same DNA with other notable social primates like Chimps & Bononbos, there is no doubt that the concept of equality is DNA inherited. So is a sense of hierarchy. This is the basis for class/caste and is actually in our DNA as it is in most sentient beings. And we instinctively recognise those who should be treated as strangers. All in our DNA. So on that list, I only see money as uniquely human and potentially not inheritable. The rest are by us and most primates and mammals in general.

I have “Sapiens” in my reading pile at the moment so my comments are purely based on those reported observations from his book. I’m hoping Harari’s understanding of biology and inherited behavioral traits is not dragging in the old binary arguments of nature/ nurture. I totally agree about the view of intellectual myth but I see that as the way we create meaning out of some biological inherited instinctual behaviours.

I much prefer Johnathan Haidt’s analogy of the rider and the elephant. The elephant represents our powerful largely subconscious expression of our instinctive (inherited) behaviours. The rider (our intelligent consciousness) is like a lawyer, imagining ways to explain those instinctive impulses. The rider gives the illusion of being rational and in control. The truth is the elephant is too powerful for the rider so the often irrational behaviours we display need the lawyer to come in after the fact and explain it all away.

How is any of this relevant to the forum? Well how often have we just had a rant, expressed an emotionally charged opinion as immutable truth and then had to send the lawyer to mop up and explain in rational terms our possibly unfounded ‘truth’? Nice to know those angry sprays and desire to sheepishly fanboy a brand are in fact instinctual and at the same time irrational made rational by the rider. Enough navel gazing.

[Michael Gissing]

[Bill Davis] “And the scary corollary now, is that if you can successfully manipulate people into accepting an fictional reality well enough – you can manipulate their behavior in reality, in return. (shudder)”

On the micro scale this describes how individuals can justify preferences for technology brands. The art of design and marketing is to present such fictional reality of what represents superiority. On the macro scale, this is the exact description of religion.

However the need to believe fictional reality is hard wired in us so no surprises that it is at the heart of so much of our belief systems. Which sadly means there is no such thing as actual reality. Someone will one day do a Phd on this forum to show how the concept of reality is a shifting phantom.

[Michael Gissing]

Thanks for that extra detail Oliver. I’m guessing BM would make use of this GPU on PC & Linux versions of Resolve.

The Apple tie in is interesting. I wonder who initiated the product. It seems to suit Apple more than BM from my side of the fence. But it begs the question why didn’t Apple just make it?

[Michael Gissing]

Yes good article, thanks Oliver. Curious that it’s only available through the Apple app store. I wonder how many PC based laptop users might want to play with this for Resolve. I presume it would have some benefit for them as well. Of course anyone could purchase it via Apple but there might well be non Apple people who would prefer local distributors

[Michael Gissing]

[Bill Davis] “I just think it’s more complicated than you’re implying here.”

Morality is rarely that complicated. Justifying it or philosophizing it sure can be. It’s a simple truth that corporations can be immoral citizens whilst being perfectly legal. It is that simple.

I only raise these issues because it is easy to equate financial success with being somehow worthy of our veneration. Apple are no so rich and powerful that they are above reproach in many areas.

[Michael Gissing]

[Bill Davis] “This was just on Apple Insider today.
Apple says it has paid $10.4B of $15.1B in back taxes to Ireland”

I didn’t read the article but I know the back story. Apple based itself in Ireland because they were given an astonishingly low tax rate which made it highly lucrative to ship profits from it’s operations all over the world to Ireland. The European Union courts determined the deal highly illegal and threatened to make Ireland pay to the EU the taxes that Apple had fraudulently avoided under the illegal deal. So Apple is paying the fine for their illegal activities.

If for a moment you think avoiding the social responsibility of paying fair taxes for profits made is ‘good business’ then I’m not sure where your moral compass is. As I said, the problem is not just Apple. But the social consequences for the richest companies in the world to use loopholes to avoid fairly sharing their good fortune with the peoples of the world who make them so wealthy are that health and social services like education are not properly funded by governments.

[Michael Gissing]

I’d be happy if Apple (and Google, etc) paid tax in the many countries they operate in. I don’t care how clever their products are when they are acting like such poor corporate citizens in so many countries. They are not the only tech and big industrial corporations that behave that way. That is no excuse but shows how socially uncool they are.

[Michael Gissing]

[Andrew Kimery] “he original reviewer that started this whole thing was transcoding a five and half minute long 5K Scarlet-W clip into 4K H.264 in his home (which presumable is air conditioned). Not exactly an edge case. ;)”

Indeed not, but since then Apple have changed the power throttle software, it will be the power user that finds the breaking point now that Apple are letting those users get much closer to the edge.